Space Odyssey
by DKFairy
Summary: Over 1,000 years in the future a girl tries to unravel her family secrets and her own past, but there's more secrets and history than she counted on.
1. The Begining

This will be B/A soon, just not yet, but that's not saying she's with someone else, cos she isn't, ok?  
  
Disclaimer: What a shame, none of this belongs to me, I bet that's a surprise.  
  
Space Odyssey  
  
Voice Record: ON  
  
Year: 3032  
  
Space Date: 21.12  
  
Time: 23:49  
  
Location: Station 60078- Old Earth Site  
  
Name: Natasha Latia Phoenix  
  
//My mother died 3 days ago. Tonight we buried her. Me, my brother Hunter, my sister Catalina and Spike, buried Elyabeth Anala Phoenix. That was it; we were the only ones who came. My mum always said that not many would come to wish her farewell, that too many were already gone.  
  
Understand this, my mum didn't die of old age; she always seemed so young and energetic. I don't really know how old she was in the end. I mean, the average lifetime is 187 now, and I'm already 106, so mum can't have been that old. The only thing that nags at me is. what was my mum, and what am I?  
  
Because the funny thing is if I were to get up, leave my couch and walk to stand in front of the mirror, I'd see the body of a 19-year-old girl. Even with all of our technology, that isn't natural. Every few years we all have to move, because people start to ask questions. But mum. she never looked over 25, and I know she was at least 190. The question is. why?  
  
I bet Spike could tell me, but he won't. He said he swore to mum that he wouldn't.  
  
Spike is one of the old creatures, a vampire that escaped the First Planet, Old Earth, before humankind left and it was destroyed. They weren't supposed to leave, the history books say, but they did. He's good though, most who left weren't. Spike is like a father to me, because I've never met mine.  
  
So, all the answers have to be on this little hologram disk, the one mum left for me in a sealed vault in one of the most high security deposit banks in this system. Why?  
  
What was so important that it had to be locked away, and why only tell me now? I guess I'll just have to watch and learn. //  
  
Voice Record: OFF  
  
Year: 3032  
  
Space Date: 21.12  
  
Time: 24:01  
  
Location: Station 60078- Old Earth Site  
  
Name: Natasha Latia Phoenix  
  
The girl with striking jet black hair with white streaks and bright blue eyes slowly unclasped the hologram case and gazed at the small oval disk inside, watching the lights reflect off of it's smooth surface.  
  
Closing her palm around it she stood and walk to a small slot in the wall opposite her couch, and pushed the disk in. As it registered small clicking sounds could be heard, and the girl went to lock all the doors, she wanted no disturbances tonight.  
  
Just as she sat down on the black couch the disk began to transmit. A hologram of a woman roughly 25 years old appeared, with long, slightly curled, shiny blond hair and blue green eyes. She wasn't overly tall, but she was slim, dressed plainly in what seemed to be a regular blue station suit- a variation of the Old Earth cat suits, but looser with a mid thigh length light blue over top. Not particularly noticeable, but if you looked closely you could see that there was a gold badge on one arm, of a pair of wings encased in flames. That meant that she fought the demons that plagued the stations and planet colonies. Not many had those badges. The dark hair girl wore one on her own arm.  
  
The woman smiled, and then started to talk.  
  
//Hello Natasha! If you're watching this then I'm probably dead. Don't cry, darling, it was long over due, I . I wanted it.  
  
I suspect that you're after answers then, who you are and what you are, is that it?  
  
To tell you that, I'm going to have to take you back along time ago, even further back than your history classes ever took you, back a millennium. This story starts in 1981. You would think that there must have been dozens of generations of our family since then, but you'd be wrong.  
  
There have been exactly 2 generations since then, Natasha. You and me. Don't gasp now, it will all make sense.  
  
I was born in 1981 in New York, to Joyce Julia Summers and Hank Andrew Summers. Look them up if you want, Tash, see what you can find.  
  
My name then, was Buffy Anne Summers.//  
  
To be continued. Sorry if I got her birth date wrong, I couldn't remember, so I just guessed. Please no flames, but do correct me if I say something really wrong. Oh, and please review!!!! 


	2. Startling Revelations

This will be B/A soon, just not yet, but that's not saying she's with someone else, cos she isn't, ok?  
  
Disclaimer: What a shame, none of this belongs to me, I bet that's a surprise.  
  
//I was born in 1981 in New York, to Joyce Julia Summers and Hank Andrew Summers. Look them up if you want, Tash, see what you can find.  
  
My name then, was Buffy Anne Summers, and as I'm sure you've worked out I'm over 1050 years old. I wanted to tell you before but. . . //  
  
Someone was knocking at her door. Maybe if she just ignored them they would get the message and go away. Couldn't she just be left alone, after all she had just buried her mother. But who ever it was, was persistent  
  
//. . . I never knew how or when I should. I thought that it would put you in danger. If you ever set out to find my past, and your father, you would be hunted down. The path to your father is filled with enemies. But I'll come to that later. . . //  
  
Someone was still at the door, banging at it non-stop. With a frustrated sigh the raven haired young woman stood and switched off the hologram. She wanted to keep her mothers secrets to herself until she actually knew what they were.  
  
Making sure that everything was switched off she turned and entered the code to her main door, and checked to see if the person was recognised on her scan. Two seconds later the scan was completed and she knew exactly who it was.  
  
Muttering under her breath she hit the open code and glared at the man on the other side.  
  
"Spike."  
  
"Well, what a nice welcome for your old friend, Natasha. What were you doing?"  
  
"It's none of your business, but I was watching a hologram.umm."  
  
"A hologram? Who from?"  
  
"Um. . .no one you know, just an old friend from school. It's finished now anyway. What did you want?"  
  
"I just wanted to check up on you, it's been pretty rough the last few days, and I wanted to make sure you were ok."  
  
"oh. . . thanks Spike. I'm ok now." "If you're sure. . .Any way, I have some stuff of your mums for you. It's all in the bag there. I'll just leave then. . ." He turned uncertainly towards the door, having carefully placed a bag on the table by the door.  
  
"Spike! Wait a minute! Um. . . would you just tell me the truth? How old are you?" She bit her tongue nervously, and stared him in the eye; deep bye eyes meeting ice blue ones.  
  
"Tash, you know I don't talk about that. . ."  
  
"No. Now you tell me. You have to be at least 400, because you said that you came from Old Earth, and that was destroyed 400 years ago. You are going to tell me, because tonight I bring an end to the lies my life has been built on!"  
  
"Calm down. You want the truth? If I were to tell you that I was older than your mum would that give you any idea?"  
  
"That would give me an idea, yes." She stated in a steady voice, although inside she was trembling. Her friend, her mothers' friend, her hunting buddy, was one of the Ancient Masters. A vampire that held so much strength. . .  
  
"How? You don't know how old she was, do you?!"  
  
"Yes I know! You're at least 1050. . . probably a lot older than that. . . "  
  
"You really want the truth, midget?" He really didn't think she knew, how could she, unless. . .unless she got the disk. But if she got that she'd want to find her father: and probably end up dead. "I'm 1160. Now I've told you, you've got to promise me something. If you get sent a disk from your mother, don't open it. Promise me?"  
  
Don't open it. . . Don't open it. . . why? And to promise. . .But surely, if it had already been opened she wouldn't be breaking the promise. . .if she got another disk she wouldn't open it, but this one was already open anyway.  
  
"I promise. Any disk I get sent from this moment on, that's by mum, I won't open. You have my word."  
  
"Alright. I've got to go now and see your sister. I'll see you later."  
  
"Yeah, bye Spike. See you."  
  
_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*  
  
He stood and looked at the closed door behind him after she left. There was just something going on that he didn't trust.  
  
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She leaned against the door after she shut it and closed her eyes. Everything she had ever known was starting to unravel, and all that she was being left with was more questions. What was so terrible about her father that no one wanted her to find him?  
  
Taking a deep breath she pushed way from the door and went to switch the hologram back on. It was too late to just leave it now. As the image of her mother re appeared she returned to her couch and sat back to listen.  
  
//. . . The path to your father is filled with enemies. But I'll come to that later. As I said, I am over 1050 years old, and I've been through various names for myself over the years, but I started life as Buffy Summers in New York in 1981.  
  
For the first 10 years of my life I lived in that city, with my family. My mum and dad weren't around all that much, but I had cousins that I loved, Cecile, Nicola, Tony and Corinna. I spent a lot of my time with them, but my cousin Cecile died when I was 7 and I never really got over it.  
  
When I was 10 my father decided that it was best for his work if we moved to Los Angeles, a city in California. It was a nice place to live, and it was always naturally warm. I had a normal life there. I didn't know about demons and vamps back then. A lot more people know today than they did then, although even today some don't realise.  
  
My image of the perfect world was ruined when I was only 15. That's when I was told I was a Slayer. I didn't believe it, until I staked my first vamp. I know that we usually use swords now, but back then that was too obvious and I just used a wooden stake. There was a Master in the area where I lived, not like the Ancient Masters that we fight, not so powerful, but back then I found them tough enough. I did manage to kill that vamp, but it cost me. I had to burn down the gym of my school, and I got expelled. My family was splitting up and in the end my parents divorced.  
  
My mother moved me to a little town away from L.A, that's what we used to call Los Angeles, and I started another new life in another new place. I did make friends there, and they knew about me being the Slayer. It was great fun, those times, although, like everything, there were rough patches. But, on the whole, Sunnydale wasn't too bad. It held a lot of memories for me too.  
  
That was where I met your dad. . .//  
  
Ok, how was that?  
  
Thanx to gel-gel, Werewearer and White Wolf 3, who were my first 3 reviewers on this story!  
  
Please tell me what you think? Please! 


	3. View to a Killer: A Spike Interlude

This will be B/A soon, just not yet, but that's not saying she's with someone else, cos she isn't, ok?   
  
Disclaimer: What a shame, none of this belongs to me, I bet that's a surprise...   
  
This is written for fastpilot who pointed out something about Spike to me.   
  
  
View to a Killer- A Spike Interlude   
  
Spike POV   
  
  
I know the kid means well, but she knows how to find loopholes in a promise. She should know. I taught her. I'll never be able to stop her looking at that disk.   
  
I never thought that I'd end up in a life like this. Back when I was human I was a pathetic mess, to be honest. I was a bad poet, an insecure person and really just a waste of space.   
  
But I became more than that. I became a vampire, a strong, powerful, unstoppable vampire, from the best bloodline.   
  
Suddenly I was everything I had wanted to be in life, but hadn't been able, or had the guts, to be. I was bad. And even when those I most respected and looked up to turn against me, I carried on being bad. But in the end everything changes.   
  
I didn't mean to change, but I did in the end. For years I followed the Slayer ( should I still call her that?) around like a lost puppy, even though I knew she would never love me. We even had a thing for a while after she died.   
  
After she died. Why does everything in our lives have to revolve around death?   
  
But no. It was never meant to be. I remember 2 years after she was brought back from the dead the second time, by Willow after the fight with Glory. That was the day that her (I can't say happy) familiar life caved in.   
  
Her little sister may not have been there all of her life, she may not even have been real, but she was loved. It nearly killed Buffy to have to watch her leave, to be left with nothing where she remembered having a sister. She knew she had been there, but it was as if part of her had be smashed, leaving only dislocated fragments. Dawn was returned to where ever she came, and we were all left to pick up the pieces afterwards.   
  
The Slayer was never the same after that. She cut herself off from people, much like when she was returned from the dead, but that time even I was pushed aside. I was hurt and I was stupid, so I just left. It seemed at times that my soul still bent to the power of over 100 years of evil, and it just disappeared for a while.   
  
I'll never really find out what happened when I was gone. All I know is that, for a while at least, the Slayer left and travelled around. I think she went to India, but I'm not sure. It never was something we spoke about.   
  
By the time I came back, she was back in Sunnyhell too. I'll never forget the day I walked into the Magic Box and saw a 30 year old looking Willow and Xander sitting next to the Slayer, and I swear on my unlife she had not aged a day since I left. Thinking back, she hadn't aged since she was brought back from the dead after the fight with Glory. She still hasn't aged a day.   
  
We all thought that she would still have a natural life span though. We were wrong there.   
  
For the next 70 years we travelled, sometimes together, sometimes apart, but always avoiding LA, as a rule. That was where he was with his new life and new friends. We never went there.   
  
Time flew by, the way it does when you have don't have to worry about the aging process and one day I woke up in a hotel room in Canada, only to realise that today was her 110 th birthday. It was then that I realised that she had to be immortal. I mean, if she were dead she wouldn't be sleeping in the next hotel room.   
  
So we travelled for another few hundred years. Sometimes my souls was in charge, other times it wasn't, but I no longer had any impulse to kill her, so we were fine.   
  
We tried to avoid him as best we could. She said that she just couldn't face him anymore, but when we heard, about 300 years later, that the last of the descendants of his old friends had been killed, we went to him in LA.   
  
I swear that I have never seen anyone so shocked. I guess he assumed that she had died and no one had told him. He had never seen her at any funerals, never heard anyone talk about her, so what was he to expect.   
  
But they parted again. I guess the only thing Buffy and Angel know how to do is leave each other.   
  
And that's how it carried on for centuries. Meeting and then leaving again. Sometimes they only saw each other for a few days or hours. Other times he would stick around for years.   
  
The last time I saw him was 8 months before Catalina was born. I don't think he even knows that she exists. He knows about his other 2 children though. That was why he left. He said that they would never be safe when he was around, so he just left Buffy, when she was pregnant, with 2 small children to look after. I was so mad at him for that, she was my best friend, it was my job to look out for her and feel like that, but looking back I see that he did what he did to protect them, because he loved them.   
  
That won't be enough now though. Natasha wants to find him, and no doubt the other 2 will want to as well.   
  
There's nothing I can do to stop them, but if they do leave to find him, I'm going with them.   
  
There are ancient evils out there that they can't even begin to imagine.   
  
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Two corridors away in a comfortable room a girl sat and listened to her mother recount her life story and began to plan an adventure.   
  
Millions of Space Stations away, a vampire began to plan that girl's death.   
  
As he entered his room, Spike began to think that this might be the last time he would get to see it in a long time.   
  
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TBC. . .   
  
Thanx to everyone who has reviewed so far, I think you're all great! I'll try to update as often as I can, but I have loads of essays to write for school at the moment!   
  
Please tell me what you think!!! 


	4. The Truth: Sinking Sand

This will be B/A VERY soon ( I just need to bring her back from the dead again or something, ok?), just not yet, but that's not saying she's with someone else, cos she isn't.  
  
Disclaimer: What a shame, none of this belongs to me, I bet that's a surprise.  
  
P.S- this hasn't been beta read, so please excuse the mistakes. . .  
  
Sinking Sand  
  
The Truth  
  
// That's where I met your dad, although he wouldn't truly hold that title for another 900 years or more. But he was my lover, more than that, my one true love.  
  
I know that when I met him I was only 16, and he was over 240, but that didn't matter. Nothing mattered to us then, except each other. . . and saving the world for demons and vampires, of course.  
  
And Tash, I know you can do the math, so I'll just tell you straight out, your father wasn't human. He was. . . I don't know if I'm being too blunt about this. . . well, he was a vampire. I know your going to start throwing a fit, but let me finish first. He had a soul, a beautiful soul, and we truly did love each other, but there were some other factors we hadn't counted on.  
  
He lost his soul on my 17th birthday when we made love. He turned into my worst nightmare. . . a demon with my lovers beautiful face. That was his name. When he had a soul he was Angel, but when he didn't. . . then he was Angelus, the one with the angelic face.  
  
I guess then that that's some more research to add to your list. I can't go into his past now.  
  
You'll be interested to know that I met someone else very important there. . . our good friend Spike. Yeah, that relationship started off with a bang. He tried to kill me, quite a few times if I remember actually.  
  
But something's are never meant to be. When Angel got his soul back he felt, saying it was for the best. Two years later I died again at the hands of some hell god. Died again? Oh yeah, I was killed by the Master, an ancient vamp, when I was 16.  
  
Sometime between Angel leaving and my dying Spike came over to our side. If you want to know the story behind that one ask him, and I'm telling you, you will laugh so much!  
  
But anyway, when I was brought back from the dead after that I lost the title of 'mortal'. I wasn't a vamp, or a demon, but I wasn't human. Simply 'Immortal' was the term I came up with.  
  
So there you have it, my life as a human. If you want to know the rest of the story ask Spike, because I do not want to have to recount over 1000 years of history to you.  
  
I know I haven't given you nearly enough answers, but I think that some things you just have to learn yourself. . . either through research, or hassling Spike enough.  
  
Have fun Natasha. Don't leave your siblings out of the game, and for MY sake, please don't get killed!  
  
I love you, never forget that, never doubt that.  
  
One more thing before I go. Never believe that you know what's out there. Never think that you have faced the darkest enemy. And know that you are never alone.//  
  
As the hologram's echoes faded silence flooded the room, only disturbed by the distant hum of the space station generators and the other humans aboard.  
  
Lifting her head for her hands, Natasha Latia Phoenix stared around her room as if she had never seen it before.  
  
The truth is a truly awful thing, she realised, because it is addictive. Once you know, you want to know more, even if you know you shouldn't. Like sinking sand. You know that you shouldn't move, or you'll sink faster, but you can't stop throwing your arms around looking for an escape.  
  
"Curiosity killed the cat," she muttered as she stood and shook her hair out. "And it's about to kill me."  
  
_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*  
  
So that's how two days later a virtual computer monitor came to be wondering in it's carefully crafted A.I head, what a dark haired teenager was doing researching people dead for hundreds of years, people who meant nothing to the world.  
  
But these people did mean a lot to the world, thought Natasha, as she watched the monitor out of the corner of her eye, knowing what the nosey old lump of metal was thinking. They meant everything to it, more than once. Without them the world would have been gone centuries before its time.  
  
Typing in an access code she had found more than 60 years before she began to sort through the endless lists of names. Summers. . . not that one . . . Summers. . . not that one either. . . how many Summers where there born in 1981 anyway!?  
  
Summers, Buffy Anne. . . At last! The right one!  
  
Now let's see. . .  
  
Oh. That explains a lot. Now on to my grandparents. It sounds weird saying that about people that died 1000 years ago. I guess I'll have to get used to it, because if I am part vampire I'll have to watch hundreds of people die before I do. I wonder if I'll be able to stand it?  
  
"Well, Joyce, you had a pretty boring life, didn't you?" Natasha whistled to herself, choosing to ignore the monitor. "Gallery owner, mother of two, once divorced, died. I guess that to store all of the information they had to cut some of it down a bit. . .  
  
"And Grandpa, you weren't much better, although it appears you may have had a better sex life. Married 4 times? Divorced 3 times, died in the third marriage. . . death poison. Looks like that last one was only after your money. . .serves you right, marrying someone younger than your daughter would have been, if you thought she was still alive."  
  
Now that just leaves me with the list of vampires, doesn't it? I guess I better get started. . .  
  
_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*  
  
In Natasha's own room two siblings sat and watched the hologram of their mother talking to their older sister. Both sat silenced by the information being fed to them, shocked and amazed at their heritage.  
  
The elder of these two was a dark haired boy, who looked as if he could be no older than 18, or maybe 19, with a handsome face that girls found it too hard to say no to. Hunter took after his father. Dark eyes, a stark contrast to the clear blue that both his sisters sported stared in wide eyed amazement at his mother as she retold an epic story, and wondered in corner of his mind why none of the history classes he had to take could be this interesting.  
  
At his side a small, cat like girl sat, clearly living up to her name: Catalina. Light blonde hair, and eyes a few shades lighter than her sisters sapphire orbs were glued to the hologram. Her breath caught in her throat as the secrets were revealed, only to be let out again in an angry burst at the thought of what she would do to Spike for not telling her.  
  
Neither of the two batted an eye as their sister slipped silently into the room and sat on the left hand side of Catalina, and began to re watch the image.  
  
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Spike noted from where he stood outside the slightly opened door watching the three that they made quite a set. All different hair colours, all- different clothes styles, all different people. Anyone looking would be confused as to why three such different people would be sitting together: A sleek and deadly looking raven haired young woman, a tall well built young man with a look of too much mischief in his eyes, and lastly a small, sweet blonde girl who you would think could be no older than 16.  
  
Yet there they were, about to start planning something, no doubt. He was worried when Buffy had made that hologram that they would try to find the answers to the questions that she left hanging. But. . . wasn't that exactly what she wanted them to do? To do this and to learn to survive without her?  
  
Still, it wasn't as though he would leave them to go alone, and from the look of it he would be leaving soon.  
  
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On an old ship drifting away from the last station a vampire paced up and down, wondering if the Slayer was still alive, and if she could get to those brats of hers. The newly resurrected Master watched her from his throne in the shadows, surrounded by splashes of dried blood. What was the point in being clean if they were going to move soon?  
  
Still the blonde vampire paced, hundreds of ideas swirling around her head. She had to kill the brats; they were the last connection her Childe had to the world of mortals, and if they lived he would never truly be hers again.  
  
From the door way Angelus watched his sire as she planned. She would not hurt his children, no one would hurt his children. After loosing his soul to a mage he had been lost as to what to do and where to go. He wanted to go and see the Slayer- not kill her, not anymore- he wanted to know her again, like she had known Angel. But that plan was scraped when she died. And then his Sire had come along, and he had found out about the children. . . them dying was not an option, even if it meant changing sides for a while. . .  
  
_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*  
  
So in the dim room three vampires plotted against each other in the age-old way of vampires and in far brighter room light years away three siblings planned to find them.  
  
TBC. . .  
  
Sorry I didn't update for so long, but I had a lot of school work going on, but if I get plenty of reviews I might be persuaded to write a bit quicker. . .  
  
Thanx to everyone who has reviewed so far, I'm honoured that you thought it was so good. If you have any ideas that you think would work in the story, tell me?  
  
Also I need to add in some minor characters, friends, other demons and staff on the travel ships that they get to know, so if you want to tell me a name and what you want your character to do I'd be happy to add them in : ) 


End file.
